Welcome to the latest convention report, this time for the growing ConBravo weekend extravaganza! The attendance this year was 3772 this year, a new record again! It’s great to see the growth of a convention over a 5 year span now. I’m going to try this time to give a summary report for each day as there was a lot to do and see this year, so here’s what went down this year!

FRIDAY

Skeletons in the Closet

This opening convention game show done at G-Anime and brought by one of its organizers to this convention had some of the 404s with Antfish of Team FourStar one of the guests from the musical side tell about their secrets as attendees tried to guess who was lying about the posted secrets and who was telling the truth, all with the extra challenge of a fake secret at the start added, In the end there were stories of roller coaster driving that ended up hitting a squirrel to explode, puking after drinks in washroom and seeing on an adult neighbour’s computer adult movies at the age of 12.

The Video Gaming Room

When there was a free moment this was a good place to chill at with a ton of old and new games. There was the Arcade area where I got to play once more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (the best of the series as it had levels not featured in the home port), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (I was happy I still remember how to play as Cyber Smoke and do his main combos and his world explosion Fatality), Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike. For others the games ranged from Dance Dance Revolution to Bust a Move, while there was also computer gaming, current and older consoles (I got to play an old Sega Master System with Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap) and about every version of Super Mario Kart made for various systems.

The 404s Improv Comedy Late Night Show: Improv Against Humanity (With an attendance of 100 plus attendees who lined up to enter the Heritage room in basement of Sheraton Hotel)

It was the Late night CAGE show–as the in joke of all things Nicholas Cage continued from Anime North in games like Word Vomit where a pair of actors had to say his name 69 times (I’m pretty sure that’s how you summon him, like Beetlejuice). A couple who were both Cage appeared in Pan left/right along with scenes (stuck in the form of a cage) of sexy chess, monks turning water and wafers into wine and fish to call upon a new God with the initials N.C. via all these miracles, and some failed roller coaster riding and puking. Party quirks had a host run into happy, angry and randy Nicholas Cages. Survivor lead to Christopher Walken coaching MLB players who banned Nicholas Cage his rival who watched on and that somehow lead to odd Bill Cosby/Donald duck/Italian accent changes during each retake. Even at the end the entire crowd was chanting for Nicholas Cage to show how pretty insane and fun shows can get.

Other scenes that didn’t involve Cage occurred too. Poseidon and a follower had an emotional roller coaster of pride, fear of braiding knots in Poseidon’s beard, and excitement over making waterspouts. Film noir focused on passive aggressive post it notes from a mom who is a dad with knife and gun to confuse his/her son. The Last unicorn held a Press Conference for admitting to killing Lady Gaga (I took on the silly role as one of the reporters named Michael Cole who was covering wars and asking for subscriptions to a certain network). The Irish drinking game was about Satan wanting elves and other folks in the Underworld. Richard III stole artichokes from kids who got gangrene on it and many funky colors in More Specific scenes.

This was another fun game show that I participated in with Antfish with The 404s. It was simple-the host would ask from the website would we press the button based on something being given at a cost. Some of the topics included:

*Millions of dollars being rewarded if various people die.
*No more acme but you’d be left with fishy feet (though maybe the feet can breathe underwater even if can only be on land for 24 hours before death anytime not in water as another option).
*Anyone cast in a movie you make gets an Oscar but you can’t be Leo Dicaprio
*Getting the skills of the best drummer in the world but always having a beard.
*Time travelling but being unable to interact (just being able to watch...so time travelling Netflix).
*Being very good at everything but your rival would always be just a bit better.

Overall scores didn’t matter but some polls had pretty close results.

The Probending Arena

I got to attend the event briefly due to a lot going on in the day. It was neat to see some of the replica Earth stones used and a bunch of the cosplayers as Korra, Katara, Zuko, Toph, and Azula on site.

Kill La Kill Nudist Beach Meet Up Panel

I was happy to see a bunch of cosplayers aside the Nudist Beach versions of Mako and Satsuki hosting it. I came in my Barazo Nudist Beach outfit appropriately while I also saw people as Nui, Ryuko, and even another Omiko the Tennis star. Everyone who participated got Croquette recipes on a scroll. Some of the topics covered included lots of theories about if Nui is still alive either in Mako’s body when she slayed her in one episode or fused with her like a symbiote, fun notes on favourites on the show (even Ragyo, Nui and Nonon got some love for being cool, cute and in due time likeable among reasons) to slides of the costumes for commentary. Fun stories were shared about showing friends the show even with the fanservice leading to being proud of nudity among various controversial topics. Fans made some funny comparisons like Nui bring so pretty in pink or how she looked like Dee Dee from Dexter’s Laboratory, how Mako looked like Jotaro Joestar (and a cosplayer was there in the same outfit!), and that Gamagoori can be as big as he wants to be.

Some topics got a bit more discussion in serious like whether Mako is a lesbian or bisexual or straight considering Gamagoori and Ryuko relationships. Some nice secondary cast talk got touched like the Mankanshoku family, Guts the dog too while other characters got surprise talk like Rei (the secretary for Ragyo) being popular to Mohawk badass Tsumugu being key to some story even if he lost a lot in battle. A sneak peek was also shown for the upcoming autumn OVA of their graduation Will it shock by having clothed people? Couples finally being recognized or broken up? Could Senketsu be back based on the voice actor being listed on the preview?! It’s interesting that some wanted to know if it can get crazier but that got to talks on why this was a great show. It’s been a while since a bat-shit crazy, no holds barred, not scared to shock anime show to appear. Will it work for a season 2 or if another show tried? Maybe not since the first time is sometimes the best as returns can become lessened each time you try to top things. For the ride it is for now Kill La Kill is an amazing show with no limits to dare to be what it is fans seemed to agree upon.

Improv All-Stars on the Main Stage (For a crowd of about 400 plus attendees with guest stars Gaijin Goombah, brentalfloss and Petros of My Life as a Video Game; their links attached to this video of the line up at http://youtu.be/HWCM5jCru_U)

The packed room got to see The 404s act once more with some of the special guests of the convention in various short scenes and games. There was a re-enactment of Haikyu the volleyball anime with a new soundtrack about Hinata spiking balls with his eyes shut into his coach’s face and then becoming between by going into slow motion during the songs and attempting to take his shirt off. Props got brought up for short scenes including a Pikachu with Nicholas Cage’s face on it as well as a giant sword (that was also used in Emotional Objects), and a suitcase (which made for a funny Leatherface scene). There was a Press Conference about Christopher Walken becoming the next Batman (sorry Ben). There were Oscar Winning Moments from the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, a Slideshow about a vacation in the Bahamas that involved Nicholas Cage and a Bellhop who followed a couple everywhere and Dr. Know-It-All appeared to speak one word at a time about how Ligers did their laundry.

Random Lines was done twice, first for entry into Heaven then for Vikings and their magical talking kilt for the sequel to Kill La Kill. Lines submitted by fans that got read in both scenes included “To Infinity and Beyond!”, “Make it So!”, “Moon Prism Power!”, “You are just like Robin to me! The Chris O’Donnell version!”, “How Many Ears Do you Have?” (ended up being 3 when in Heaven if curious), “I am the potato sandwich!”, “George Lucas defiled my childhood.”, “Guess What? I call it the Penitrautus!” (an infamous line from There Warriors Are Terrible podcasts at http://thesewarriorsareterrible.com/spirit-century-target-london/ who had various cast members there as guests at the convention too), “Just Grab the Barrel”, and “All the hot girls in Japan are animated.” Scenes from a Hat included people’s last thoughts while being eaten by a Titan (how Titans use Crest toothpaste, wondering if the oven left on, there’s a ballpit below).

The finale of this show was crazy to promote a later event: D20 Live. So to show that, D4 dice instead of the usual mousetraps were used for 2 blindfolded, barefoot actors to do a scene suggested by the crowd. They ended up going through a field of hot coals with much gusto and bravery.

This event keeps upping the ante for showcasing tabletop RPGs done with the guests of the convention. This year’s event was done with Roo of the Clan of the Gray Wolf, Linkara & Nash Bozard of Channel Awesome, and Doctor Holocaust. They played in the infamous Tomb of Horrors (complete with the DM and his skull of a Demi-Lich courtesy Featherweight). As they cautiously entered they already got into trouble when they turned stone walls into flesh walls to get in. The rogue of the group ended up with multiple sex changes from a mysterious that included becoming Jackie Chan after being a girl rogue. The ranger had a hawk named Puck that had to do a lot of searching. They came across a green demon entranceway that had no end, even after they used lots of stones and silk/hemp rope to test it. The group did manage to find gold around some pews, and find some mysterious potions in a laboratory.

After many doors were picked open and traps checked for evil, the end came in the crypt of the Demi-Lich. Of all the characters to survive the whole scenario, it was won by a gargoyle they had turned into a fussy cat (with pictures shown on the big screen supplied to show maps and monsters!) with 100HP and who survived testing from a bag of holding, traps and mists. A digital copy of the module will be up soon with other things to relive the crazy adventure, while next year looks promising with the theme of Firefly played at the end.

SUNDAY

The 404s Finale (Which included the long form Missing Video Game of Final Fantasy for about 110 in attendance in the Main Stage room)

The show’s first half was the usual short scene format. The Arnold Schwarzenegger opener allowed for impressions of the actor giving tag line like “I’m about to turn your lights out.” Spider-Man and Pac-Man faced off with the help of Emotional Stunt Doubles. Mario Kart racing battles got narrated in a game of Survivor. There was Sports Commentary given to Extreme Knitting. The Transformers movie got re-enacted again with more explosions and cast additions. There was even another Party with Quirky guests like the cast of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a gargoyle who turned into a cat and a Demi-Lich both from a certain RPG. More Random Lines got used in scenes about things like Super Mario jumping. Submissions read on stage included “Everyone has superpowers!”, “Nothing is sexy at the Walmart.”, “Why do they suffer, when the word is inevitable?”, “Falcon Punch!”, “Team Rocket’s blasting off again...!”, and “Crazy for Cocoa Puffs!”

The show ended with a lost Final Fantasy at Chuck E Cheese that the fans suggested as the topic, where a band of heroes went against Kefka (of Final Fantasy 6) and an evil barker with evil prizes and plans to rule the restaurant. A janitor whose dad used to work there was the chosen one to lead the heroic band with friendship with help from his boss and an animatronics robot. Kefka kept poisoning and sabotaging them but after many potions and finding the living form of friendship they beat Kefka to save the restaurant from ill placed arcade machines and a tiny ball-pit from a failed convention. Friendship always wins!

Child’s Play Charity Auction/Closing Ceremonies

About 30 items got auctioned off for the second year in a row for Child’s Play, an organization that works to get video games to children in hospitals around the world to aid in their stay there as they recover. The 2 DVDs and 2 Wristbands went for $25 from The 404s while other items donated by other guests and dealers included a Golden Sonic the Hedgehog cosplay outfit, a sword from the movie Hook signed by Dante Brasco who played Rubio, various books, DVDs, video games and jewelry. In total the convention raised $1440 for Child’s Play!

The convention ended with the Closing Ceremonies with a great video of next year’s guests already announced that can be found on their website too. A raffle by Cosplay For A Cure for a pink Darth Vader figure occurred as well with the convention giving an additional donation to the total to help the group’s goal of helping cancer patients. The Q & A session with fans also gave great input and compliments to the convention for their 6th year coming (they posted below a video with everyone wishing them the best on their 5th anniversary), so here is to many more years of ConBravo!